Aspen Tree - One of the 100 Most Common North American Trees

"an aspen tree is born of fire, landslide, and disaster. It colonizes disturbed areas, massing at the sunny edges of forests and meadows, where its white bark and gentile grace makes it one of our most highly sought trees for nature photography. It is a montane species in the West, a tree of moist sandy soils in the East and the arboreal emblem in the boreal province of the Yukon...
Most individual aspen trees are tall, slender, graceful trees, not known for their massive proportions. Their bark color and branching pattern contribute to the illusion of small size, but aspens can become large on favorable terrain. The largest known quaking aspen is in Ontonagon County at the western end of upper Michigan. It is 109 feet (32.7m) tall and more than 3 feet (.09m) in diameter...
Aspen tree seed is difficult to deal with because of its small size and perishable nature. Any damage incurred by establishing aspen trees during transplanting will doom the trees to cankers, insect attack, bark blemishes, and premature death, so aspens are best established from root cuttings set directly into the permanent planting location." - From Native Trees for North American Landscapes - Sternberg/Wilson

The Silviculture of Aspen Trees
Managing Western Aspen Trees in Landscapes